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Artsnight: Series 4

Janet Lee

John Mullen

Artsnight: Series 4: Episode 3: When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell

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When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell

Episode 3

Episode 3: When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell

Series 4

BBC Two - Artsnight, Series 4, When Julie Walters Met Willy Russell

Julie Walters meets Willy Russell to find out how he became such a successful playwright.

Magazine arts show. Julie Walters meets Willy Russell, to find out how a 15-year-old dropout became one of the most successful playwrights in the history of modern British theatre.

Julie Walters, one of Britain's most popular actresses, meets Willy Russell, to find out how a 15-year-old dropout from a working-class suburb of Liverpool became one of the most successful playwrights in the history of modern British theatre.

Russell's Educating Rita catapulted Julie Walters to international stardom. He has written some of the most insightful and sensitive roles for women actors in modern British theatre history, like Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers is one of the most successful musicals in West End history.

But there is more to Russell's talents than play writing. As a friend, collaborator and comedic inquisitor, Julie uncovers Willy's remarkably diverse creative passions -from an award-winning record album, musical scores, novel writing and, most recently, painting.

In this unforgettable Liverpool reunion, Julie and Willy visit the legendary men's loo at the Philharmonic Pub, which inspired the play Stags and Hens, encounter eccentric local residents on the terrace house streets where Ringo Starr grew up, and dissect how the notion of working-class theatre has fundamentally changed since the heyday of Liverpool's legendary Everyman theatre.

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